Edwabd b



(No Model.)

B. B. ALLEN.

BUPFING MACHINE. No. 392,707. Patented Nov. 13, 1888.

Figzl.

EDWARD B. ALLEN, OF PORTLAND, MAIN E, ASSIGNOR TO THE STANLEY MANUFACTURING COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

serrate-MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 392,707, dated November 13, 1888.

Application filed August 6, 1888. Serial No. 282.073, (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I. EDWARD 13. ALLEN, of Portland, county of Cumberland, State of Maine, have invented an Improvement in Buffing-Maehines for Leatherork, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like letters on the drawings representing like parts.

This invention has for its object to provide a rapid1y-working, efficient, and durable machine for buffing or sandpapering the soles and other surfaces of boots and shoes and leather-work to be stained and finished.

The soles of boots and shoes have long been and are now commonly rubbed and ground smooth by sand-paper in the hands of the shoemaker preparatory to finishing the sole. For some years attempts have been made to do away with this hand-grinding of the bottom of the soles, and machines have been made having rotating circular pads carried by circular feet or disks on vertical spindles; but a pad grinding or abradiug the sole in but one direction fails to leave it in as good condition for staining as when rubbed by hand. I have, therefore, aimed to produce a machine in which the hand motion should be approximated as closely as possible. To do this I have provided a bufling 0r sandpapering machine with a vibrating hand containing sand or emery paper. This hand is preferably made elastic, as willbe described. The sand or emery paper is clamped thereon in novel manner, and the hand has combined with it a suction or exhaust fan to take away the dust and dirt.

Figure 1, in side elevation, represents a sufficient portion of a machine embodying my invention to enable it to be understood. Fig. 2 is a detail to be referred to. Fig. 3 is a view of the under side of the hand with the abrasive material removed. Fig. 4 is a top or plan view of the hand below the dotted line a"; and Fig. bis a section in the line :c, Fig. A.

The column A has secured to or forming part of it a bracket,B,and above it in line with the column, as herein shown, is secured the foot 0 of an exhaust fan, O, the shaft 0 of which is driven by power in usual manner,

and which at one end has a small pulley, which, as herein shown, is made available to drive the belt a, which is extended about the pulley a on the shaft a, carrying the eccentric a". The eccentric (0* vibrates the arm a secured to the rock-shaft a, to the lower end of which is attached the hand (6. The hand is made as a metal box, the hub of which about the shaft a isshown as slotted to receive loosely the hubs of two like paper-holding arms, (I (1, herein shown as bifurcated or slotted to leave two fingers, 2 3, which enter slots in the side walls of the hand, as best shown in Figs. 3, 4, and 5. The inner fingers, 3, have each, as shown, a pin or projection, 4, which pins enter diagonal oppositely-inclined slots 5 in an adj usting-bloek', 0, having a threaded hole entered by an adj listing-screw, 6, held loosely in a bearing, a", fixed to the box, the head of the screw being exposed and accessible from the end of the box, so that the screw may be rotated. The screw is capable of being rotated, bntit cannot move longitudinally, and as a result thereof the block eis moved, it causing the arms (I d to be moved in one or the other direction to clamp or loosen the sand, emery, or other paper or cloth commonly used as an abrasive surface, the said paper or cloth being folded about the under side of the block, as shown in Figs. 1 and 5, and having its side edges placed in the slot between the fingers 2 3 and between the fingers 2 and the box. In this way, by the movement of the arms (I d, the paper or cloth may be quickly placed in position and be securely held, a very large area of each piece of paper or cloth being called into use for abrasive purposes.

The box or hand is shown as provided at its under side with a series of pockets or recesses, in which I have placed aseries of small springs or yielding plugs, 9, preferably spiral springs, so as to enable the paper or cloth to have a certain or the desired amount of elasticity to resemble the action of the human hand in holding the paper or cloth. The shafts a and a have their hearings in a casting, a, secured to a hollow head, I), communicating with the exhaust-fan through a hole in the bracket B. The box a is surrounded, as herein shown, by a cover attached thereto by screws. Between IOO the inner side of the paper and cloth and springs or plugs I preferably introduce a pad, as i, Fig. 5.

In practice I find that the bottom of a sole or the tread-lift of a heel when buffed or abraded by means of an abrasive substance having a reciprocating movement takes the dye more uniformly than when the abrasive surface has a rotary motion in one direction only.

1. In a buiiing or sandpapering machine, a vibrating hand, a rock-shaft a, to which it is attached, arm a thereon, and the eccentric a to vibrate the said hand and arm, and means, substantially as described, to rotate the eccentric, substantially as described.

2. The vibrating hand a provided at its under side with a series of pockets, in which are placed the yielding springs or plugs 9, combined with fingers to hold the abrasive agent on the hand when stretched over said springs, substantially as described. I

3. The vibrating hand a and the bifurcated arms d d to hold the abrasive agent,combined with means, substantially as described, to move and hold the said arms simultaneously to clamp the abrasive agent to the hand, as set forth.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

' EDWARD 13. ALLEN. \Vitnesses:

BERNICE J. NoYns, FREDK. L. EMERY. 

